Actor condemns move to strip ISIS bride’s citizenship
BIRMINGHAM actor Adil Ray has hit out at home secretary Sajid Javid over his decision to revoke ISIS bride Shamima Begum’s British citizenship.
Begum, who fled the UK to join the Islamic State terror group in Syria aged 15, was stripped of her British citizenship by the Bromsgrove MP this week.
International law forbids nations from making people stateless by revoking their only citizenship, prompting speculation that Ms Begum, 19, who is of Bangladeshi heritage, held dual citizenship.
The Home Office said such decisions are “not taken lightly” and are carried out “in order to protect this country”.
But Citizen Khan creator Ray, 44, hit out at the move in a tweet.
The Birmingham-born actor, comedian and television presenter wrote: “So, if you consider me a threat to the UK, without any trial you will send me ‘back to my own country’?
“Something our fathers as Pakistani immigrant bus drivers fought daily.
“What have we learned? They gave us a bet- ter, fairer life. Today, you take that away.”
Ray also tweeted: “Why have the UK government not revoked Jihadi Jack Letts’s citizenship, a British Canadian dual national. He is detained in Syria. One rule for the boy from Oxford and another for the girl from Bethnal Green? “Something not right.”
A letter from the Home Office was received by Begum’s mother on Tuesday.
It read: “Please find enclosed papers that relate to a decision taken by the Home Secretary, to deprive your daughter, Shamima Begum, of her British citizenship.
“In light of the circumstances of your daughter, the notice of the Home Secretary’s decision has been served of file today, and the order removing her British citizenship has subsequently been made.”
The letter asked the mother to inform her daughter of the decision, as well as her right to appeal.
The move comes after the teenager returned to the public eye when she was found heavily pregnant living in a refugee camp in northern Syria. She gave birth to a boy over the weekend and made pleas for forgiveness and to be accepted back in the UK despite showing little remorse for the actions of ISIS.